Pumpkin Carving Part II and Trick or Treating Pictures

These are the pictures from my camera. 

My beautiful daughter and I :)

Love my family!

Our pumpkins before the carving

Maddie helping daddy out!

She was determined to help out!

Poking the points herself!

Daddy was trying to get her to help...

By the look of her face, you can see that she didn't think so!

Love her! Even with her scratched up nose! : p

I was trying to get her to at least touch it!

FINALLY!!!! She touched it with her fingertip!

My Pirate Princess! and her 'Bubba'

She loved her costume!

Trying to get as many pictures with us as I can!

The picture she took of me.. with a little guidance :)

Leaving the house to go Trick or Treating for the first time.

Walking up to the first house.

She was too scared to grab a piece of candy.

While walking away she kept saying 'nice. Bye nice.'

She was scared to walk up to the house!

A little blurry, but she was excited to keep going.

She was scared of the big bad wolf.

She did not trust him. she went to Little Red Riding Hood, but didn't take her eyes off of him. 

Pumpkin Carving

Today, we decided to FINALLY do our pumpkins. I mean at least it's not after Halloween right? I was really excited because this year Maddie could be more of a participant than just an observer. BOY, was I surprised when she didn't want to stick her hands in the gooey pumpkin guts and dig it out. She wouldn't even touch it. I had to persuade her to touch them and even that with just the tip of her finger!! BOOOO! She was being a total girl today. Oh well! At least we got her to help Jeff poke the pumpkin for her sketch. Maddie picked a scary cat for her pumpkin. I picked a spider and Jeff chose a witch. I did the gutting and Jeff cut. Of course I couldn't pass up baking the pumpkin seeds. Maddie enjoyed eating a few of them. : ) I, also, tried a new recipe that turned out really well. I was kind of nervous of how it would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'll post about that in another blog post. : ) I still need to take a picture of the finished product, but I'll post the pictures that I have. Enjoy!


Lori

Mummy dogs

It's almost Halloween and if you know me, then you know that I LOVE holidays and taking part in every aspect. My house is decorated, a lot of my desserts include pumpkin, and now I am putting it into meals. Tonight I made mummy dogs. I originally found the recipe off of the Pillsbury website. I thought it was a really cute idea. After I glanced at what I had to do with the cresent dough, I did it on my own. I did not follow the recipe like I thought, but if you would like it, then you can look HERE.

For this recipe, you will need:


the container of cresent rolls
8 pack of hot dogs
Cheese if you'd like
Mustard

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Open the container and separate into 4 squares, Then you cut each square into 8 strips.Each hotdog would get 4 strips. Wrap the hot dogs and the place on the cookie sheet. Make sure that you leave room to place the 'eyes'. You may add pieces of cheese throughout the hotdogs to make it appear of bandages. I started out at 13 minutes and continued to bake it for an additional 3 minutes. Afterwards, I added mustard dots for 'eyes'.


It was a hit with my family. It was a nice change and festive for the Halloween weekend. As usual, if you try it please let me know what you think or if you changed anything.


Lori

Raspberry chocolate cupcakes

I may have a new favorite blog! If you love to bake, want new cupcake recipes then you need to go HERE. She has some amazing recipes and the past few recipes that I have used has been from her. The chocolate chip cookie dough filled cupcakes have been from her. This recipe is now one of Jeff's favorite cupcakes that I have made. He said it's between this one and the Death By Oreo. He eats at least three cupcakes the past two days since I have made them. Anyway, The recipe is so easy to make. It actually uses a boxed cake mix which makes it that much better.

These are the items that you need:

One box of Devils food cake
2 teaspoon Raspberry extract
1 cup chocolate chip morsels
1 teaspoon Almond extract
3-4 cups Confectioner's sugar
1 1/4 stick of softened butter
3-4 tablespoons of milk
red food coloring

Directions:

Make the cake batter as it is instructed on the box. In addition to the batter, add 1 teaspoon raspberry extract and 1 cup chocolate chip morsel. Bake as directed on the box. [TIP: replace the oil with unsweetened applesauce to make it healthier.]

Frosting:

Combine the softened butter with the two extracts. When it is mixed, add a cup of confectioners sugar at a time. Add 3-4 tablespoons of milk until you reach the consistency of your choice. After, mix in your food coloring to give the hint of pink.

Enjoy afterwards! If you try this, please comment and let me know what you think of this.

I think the only thing I would do differently is maybe trying to add pureed raspberry's to the frosting instead of an extract. I have a picture on my phone that I will try to add on here.

Lori

One Class Down...

I started to take classes again so I could finish up my degree in Child and Family Development. I haven't taken classes since Maddie got sick, so it's been over a year and a half. I finally came to the decision of taking classes again, but wasn't sure how many I would be able to handle at once. Jeff's schedule is so whack! Between Jeff's work schedule, his college courses, Maddie's appointments, all of our play dates for Maddie, and my health issues, I just wasn't sure if I could handle two or not. I started off with one 8 week course and a month into it, I started my second one. The week I started my second course was also the week that I just got back from my cousins wedding in another state, my parents and brother in town, and my midterm for the first class. I was tempted to quit my second class and just start when I finished the first one. It felt like it was just too much. I sucked it up though and finished what I had started. If I ever plan to finish this degree, especially in hopes of having it done before a second baby comes, I have to fight through it. This week, my friends, is the week I go down to one class again.!! :) Funny thing is, it might be midterm/finals week, but this has been the EASIEST week by far. I don't have to read like six chapters, answer two discussion boards, reply to four, take quizzes, write up journals, or write a five page paper within one week!!! That was the craziest month. I was so busy this past month. I feel like I can breath again. It is so nice! I am glad that I stuck it out because even though it was really hard to balance everything, I did it and I am that much closer to being done.  

I am going to post a blog about my newest cupcake recipe soon, so watch out! :) 

Until then, have fun and be safe! 

Lori

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Filled Cupcakes

These are amazing! I found this recipe on another blog and couldn't resist but to try them. I think these are the best cupcakes!!! They will stick around for a while.  If you would like the recipe, you can go HERE. They are absolutely amazing! I had three yesterday and almost went and got a fourth last night!! So much for my hopes of losing weight magically, right??

If you try them, comment and let me know what you think. :)

Lori

It's been so long!

We have been so busy lately. After I posted my last blog, we went to my parents house to help finish things around the house. My dad got orders to a new place and my mom is staying back with the house. My brother flew in and visited with us, as well. It was great to see him. He is in the Navy, too, so I haven't seen him in almost a year. After my parent's house, we all drove up to NC for my cousins wedding. Now THAT was fun. We haven't had the WHOLE side of my dad's family together in like eight years. I forgot how much I truly miss my family and how much fun they are. I hated going back home, but it was needed. Dad came home with us because he had to attend a school down here for a week. Mom and my brother came the next day because they had to go pick up the dogs. That was also the week that I started my second class. That was a crazy week. Since then, I have been busy with balancing both classes, appts, Maddie, errands, and everything else going on. I am lucky to have one day free a week. I got to have a girls night last night. It was nice to take a break from class work and enjoy some company. Jeff started his Martial Arts Instructor Course. He wanted to die the first day. LOL. He survived the first week, but was really sore the entire weekend and slept a lot. He has two more weeks of it and I am sure I will have to give a thousand more massages before the end of it. Jeff had some of the other marines over today to go over some of the moves. While Maddie and I went outside to watch, she had the idea to try her own tricks. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of her. :) She is growing up too quickly. She holds the water bottle and drinks it herself!!! Can anyone see what is wrong with this??? Does anyone know how to slow her down a little?? She is so determined to grow so quickly and do everything herself.

On another note, we bought LION KINGGGGGGG!!!! I love that movie. We sat down tonight to watch it as a family and I am pretty sure I was way more excited than Maddie was. It was a lot of fun to sit down as a family and watch it. 

These next couple of months are going to be really busy. I just sat down and updated my calendar and the only days we have open during the week are tuesdays for the next two months. That is kinda crazy. We have a lot of playgroups, speech appointments, and whatever else is on there. I am looking forward to it and to being done with class. 

I know this is all random stuff. Until next time, have fun and be safe!! 

Lori :)